What do you believe you saw?Oberi asked. Charlie placed her on the altar, and she struggled to stand as she peered at me.
“In my vision, I saw the Warden’s armies marching across the land. He killed everyone who opposed him and took over the entire Earth,” I began. “No one was able to stand up to him, and anyone who tried was immediately killed. Millions of people must’ve perished, and I don’t think any Elves survived. Under the Warden’s rule, the Earth began to die. The entire planet looked barren.”
I held back a shudder. If the Earth was still around, at least the Blessed Haven had endured in this future… but it was a future that wasn’t worth living through.
“What about the old man on the throne?” Charlie asked, appearing scared himself.
“It was the Warden, I know it. I don’t know how far in the future this was, but it could’ve been a thousand years or more. The Warden had aged, and the war appeared to take a great toll on him. He looked so old that I barely recognized him, but Iknowit was him,” I stated. “His eyes were sunken, like they are now, and he seemed completely heartless. He succeeded and got everything he wanted, but it still wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He will always be cruel, no matter what he achieves, and nothing he does will bring him the utopia he desires.”
The temple was silent, save for the weeping of the other mystics, but we couldn’t sit around and be fearful now. Not when the goddesses had given us a warning we needed to act on.
“My vision isgoingto happen if The Mission wins,” I said firmly. “What’s coming is worse than what we imagined. We have to make sure that future doesn’t come to pass, at any cost.”
But who was the woman who fell from the tower?Oberi asked, nudging me.What does that mean?
I had to force myself to choke out the words. “I think… I think the woman who jumped from the tower wasme.”
Charlie went pale. He grasped me firmly, stuttering, “Where was I? I wouldn’t have let you?—”
“I didn’t see you in the vision, which means the Warden must’ve killed you and our friends. I know none of you would let me remain captured unless you guys couldn’t do anything about it.” I was nearly crying now; imagining all of this, considering losing Charlie and all my friends, almost caused me to break down. “He eliminated you and the other demigods, then took me and Oberi prisoner after the war was over.That’swhy I heard a creature roar in pain. It was Oberi. The Warden conquered Ilamanthe, then captured the palace for himself. He took me as his personal pet and kept me in a tower, but it came to the point where I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I fell to my death to escape him.”
I felt sick inside. Becoming the Warden’s favorite toy… it was a potential future thatcouldbefall me. Otherwise, the goddesses wouldn’t have warned me about it. It made me want to end my life now, just to avoid the possibility of that ever occurring.
“I would never let that happen to you,” Charlie growled fiercely.
“It’s going to, if we don’t prevent this from happening,” I insisted. “I won’t be the Warden’s prisoner. I know killing myself is something I would do to get away from him.”
“So we must make certain the Warden never conquers Ilamanthe,” the Great Mystic stated, with renewed vigor. “The life of our princess, and of our people, is at stake.”
“Why would the goddesses send you this specific message? We’ve all known what’s been at stake since the start of this war,” Charlie said.
“Maybe we weren’t taking it seriously enough,” I mumbled. “We knew that the Warden wanted to conquer the entire world, but knowing that and seeing it firsthand are two completely different things.”
I leaned against his chest and wasn’t able to suppress a soft moan of pain this time. My back felt like it was on fire, right above the vertebra where I lost all feeling.
“My prince, I implore you, the princess needs rest,” the Great Mystic said.
“I’m taking her back to our room immediately,” Charlie replied as he helped me into my chair, though he more or less carried me into it. “I don’t want anyone disturbing us for the rest of the day, understood?”
“Yes, my prince.” The mystics bowed out of the way, and Charlie hurried to push me back to his quarters. Oberi was too worn to fly, so she rested on my lap. Eldin had been standing guard by the temple doors, and she followed close behind us as we left.
On the way back, Danny called across the hall, “Hey, you two! Wait up, it’s important!”
I could practically feel Charlie grinding his teeth as he replied, “Not today, Danny.”
Danny used super speed to run from one side of the hall to the other to catch up with us. “We got a lead on that list of vamps you pulled from the strip club. They’re congregating in New York, and we’ve finally got a chance to find out what they know about the vampire key’s location. We need to put together a team now, because we’ve got a good shot at intercepting this information.”
Charlie stopped pushing my chair. At the mention of a new lead on the vampire key, I felt myself sag in both relief and exhaustion.
I went to say something, but Charlie shook his head and said, “No. It’ll have to wait.”
“Wait?” Danny asked blankly. “We’ve been waiting around for weeks on a new lead, andnowyou wanna sit around? Not a smart move, pal.”
“Ava doesn’t need this—” Charlie started, before I put a soft hand on his.
“Charlie, no. We need to handle this,” I insisted.
“You’ve been through a lot. You need a break,” he demanded.
